Subnet Control Operator Standard Operating Procedure

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  • Enable the Tactical Address for your region in Winlink Express.  See Enabling a Tactical Address. 
  • Resource Net
    • Check into Resource Net on MC-2 Repeater (147.280 +600 KHz 167.9 Hz), which will typically use a directed check in for Subnet Control operators (SNCs).
    • Listen for an announcement of the regional frequencies to be used during the deployment or exercise.  They may be different than shown in the frequencies in the table referenced above. Also note whether your region has been combined with another region. If you previously detected a problem with the frequency that is assigned to your region, use the proword “Comment” and when recognized report the problem. Make note of any change of frequency that results.
  • After being released from the Resource Net, open your regional subnet.  See Opening a Subnet. The ICS 205 with Frequencies for Subnet Control Operators gives the standard frequency for each regional subnet but the frequency announced during the Resource Net may be different.
  • If you find that your assigned regional frequency is not available, consider moving to another frequency, possibly the frequency recommended in the UHF Frequency Table. Resource Net may be able to help you select an alternate frequency. Two possible alternate VHF frequencies are 146.50 MHz and 145.53 MHz. If you change frequencies, be sure to inform both Resource Net and Tactical Net as well as making announcements on your original frequency if possible.
  • Check in the AROs for the teams in your regions while compiling a roster. See Checking in Stations. See also Compiling a Roster of Teams in the same document. Consider calling for relays unless you are sure that you can be heard by and you can hear all stations in your region.
  • Handle any questions from the teams checked into your subnet.
  • Contact Tactical Net and transmit your roster. Consider appointing a temporary SNC before doing so.  See
  • Return to your regional subnet frequency and announce your return.
  • Handle message traffic based on precedence. If you receive a surge of Priority messages use the following sub-precedence:
  1. EOC traffic to teams
  2. Teams' replies to EOC
  3. Team to Team traffic
  4. Team to EOC traffic
  • Log voice messages you receive on your Form 6. See Instructions for Using a NET Form 6 for Logging NET Form 8s.
  • If Resource Net or Command Net has given you a time to check into Command Net for an update, transition to MC-9 at that time and wait for instructions.
  • You may receive one or more calls from the EOC Command operator with information or a request to transition to MC-9 at a particular time for a briefing or a formal message. Command will contact you using your tactical call sign, e.g “Westside, this is Command Over”. If Command needs to reach you while your subnet is busy, you may hear one of the following instead.
    • “EMERGENCY, this is Command” or just “EMERGENCY”
    • “Priority, this is Command” or just “Priority”
      • If possible, respond with something like “All stations standby. Command, go ahead.”  If the precedence of your current traffic is higher than the precedence given by Command, you can respond with “Command. Please standby. <tactical call sign> Continue with your Emergency traffic.”
  • If your transceiver has two receivers, e.g. an A side and a B side, consider using one of the sides to monitor MC-9, which is the Command Net frequency. If you plan to use one of the sides of your transceiver for Winlink communication, you could use that side for both Winlink and Command by setting MC-9 in memory mode and the gateway frequency in VFO mode and switching back and forth between Memory and VFO mode on that side of the radio.
  • You may receive a voice message from the Command operator that is intended to be conveyed to the participating teams.  See Handling Traffic from Emergency Operations Center to NET Teams.
  • Command Net may contact you to inform you that you have messages waiting for your Tactical Address via Winlink.* See Tactical Addresses Addresses Established for Portland NET Program”, Transmitting and Receiving Traffic Using a Gateway” and Handling Winlink Formal Traffic from EOC”,
  • Even if you don’t hear from Command Net you should check for Winlink email about every 20 to 30 minutes in case there is traffic waiting for you. See the links to procedures in the step above. Use the KI7QIB-12 gateway** at the frequency shown in the Table of Frequencies.
  • If you are deployed as part of an exercise and receive a message that does not include words equivalent to “This is an exercise”, add those words before voicing the message to your AROs.
  • There is a chance that Command Net will give you a reply to an earlier message. If you receive such a reply, handle it based on its precedence and when you contact the intended team’s ARO, inform the ARO that it is a reply before reading it so the ARO can record the reply in the reply section of the original Form 8.  
  • Handling Formal Traffic to EOC. Ask the stations checked into your subnet if they have any traffic for the EOC or replies to any previous requests from EOC. See Handling NET Form 8 Traffic from NET Teams Including Triage. Consider calling for relays.
    • If a station has a new message, ask for its precedence if you don’t already have it. Ask other stations whether they have any traffic of higher precedence.
    • If the message has a precedence of Emergency,
      • Transcribe the message onto a NET Form 8 or an ICS Form 213.
      • Ask for any fills for the message you just received and update your transcription with the additional information.
      • Appoint a temporary SNC.
      • Contact Tactical Net on Simplex MC-8 (147.580 MHz) informing it that you have Emergency Traffic.
      • Tactical Net will (a) take your message by voice; (b) tell you that Command Net (MC-9, 146.460 MHz) will call you back on your frequency; or (c) ask you to transmit your message using Winlink. (See steps for non-Emergency messages below.)
      • Note: If a real emergency occurs during an exercise, someone should call 911 and the real emergency should take precedence over all other traffic.  
      • Log the message that your transcribed and then read to the EOC as a pair of lines on your NET Form 6.
    • If the message does not have a precedence of Emergency,
      • Use Winlink to create a new message and then select an ICS213 template. See Checklists for Winlink Tasks details.
      • Ask the first station with the highest precedence traffic to voice the message while you enter it directly into the Winlink ICS213 template.
      • If you are concerned that operators will voice their messages faster than you can type into the template, consider telling them to say “Break” at the end of each field and wait for you.
      • Ask for any fills for the message you just received and update your transcription with the additional information.
      • After you have clicked on Submit and returned to Winlink, change the From field of the message to your region’s tactical call sign by clicking on down arrowhead next to your FCC call sign to get a drop-down menu that should include your region's tactical address.  See Addressing Winlink Messages.
      • Set the To field in the main Winlink message to W7ECC.
      • Log the message you transcribed on your NET From 6. You can rely on Winlink to create a log of the messages it sends when you open and start a session later. See Steps for Generating an ICS-309.
  • Handling Replies to Formal Traffic from EOC. If a station has a reply, ask for its precedence if you don’t already have it. If the precedence is equal or greater than to the traffic you are currently handling,
    • Ask the ARO for the subject and time of the message to which they are replying.  
    • Find the original message in your log.
    • If you received the original message by Winlink, see Handling Replies to Winlink Formal Traffic.
    • If you received the original message by voice, see Handling Replies to EOC Traffic Originally Received by Voice.
    • Ask your stations whether they have any more traffic for EOC. If they do, ask them for the precedence of the traffic.  If it is the same or higher precedence as the traffic you just transcribed, ask them to go ahead by returning to step a above.  If it is lower in precedence proceed to step d below.
  • When you have transcribed the available traffic at a particular precedence level,
    • Appoint a temporary SNC.
    • Change frequency to the frequency of the experimental gateway. If the frequency is not in use, use Winlink Express to open a Packet or Vara session to send and receive messages. (Vara is preferred because it will take less time and allow the gateway to become available sooner to the next operator.)  If the experimental gateway does not appear to operational see What To Do If the EOC Gateway Is Not Available.
    • Exception: If you have Emergency traffic -- as described earlier -- you may contact Tactical Net informing it that you have Emergency traffic.
  • Facilitate communication between teams while keeping in mind precedence. Consider calling for relays.
  • Repeat the above steps starting at step 6. (It may seem unnecessary to repeat Step 6 and 7, but during real deployments AROs may become available over an extended period of time and during an exercise there is always a chance that some will arrive late.)
  • Either pass control of our regional subnet control operator to another operator or close your subnet.
  • Send any remaining Winlink traffic.
  • Check out of Tactical Net.
  • If the Resource Net is still active, check out of the Resource Net.
  • Use Winlink Express’s Setup menu to disable the tactical addresses associated with your simplex region(s).  See Disabling a Tactical Address.
  • If you receive any incoming messages addressed to your subnet that you have not handled, forward them to the SNC operator that took over your regional subnet. For Winlink traffic use your regions Tactical Address.

* Command Net will normally contact subnets on their regional frequencies and will not be monitoring MC-9 except during scheduled times. Think of Tactical Net as your communications path to EOC and Command Net as EOC’s communication path to you. On occasion, Command Net may ask you to transition to MC-9.

** The reason we are asking you to use only the special gateway is that after a Cascadia event it is unlikely that our local gateways will be able to use the Internet to exchange messages. Thus we will need to use the same gateway if we expect to receive each other's messages.

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